


Octopus over Paris

by barbex



Category: Original Work
Genre: Climate Change, Science Fiction, scifi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 07:45:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1890687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbex/pseuds/barbex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How does an octopus get on board of a spaceship?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Octopus over Paris

 

Written for a prompt on tumblr by [idareyoutowrite](http://tmblr.co/mk0dEy71Q8p9QqBZfno1pAg). Based on this picture:

 

 

 

Linda heard a bump and various crashes and waited for a noise reacting to it. She had learned to distinguish the normal little accidents that any science station had from the real accidents by the noise that followed the initial crash.

Another bump, loud crashes and the booming yells of Dr. Johannson told her that this incident was worth her attention. She pushed back from the microscope and ducked into the ship’s walkway to the stairs that would lead her to the lower level. Through the windows she could see the North Sea underneath them, the white tips of the waves glittering in the sun. The gravitational drive held them a steady 100 meters above the water.

More bumps and crashing noises came from the recreational room and she could feel the bumps vibrate through the ships interior. That was a troubling thought, the ship was built like a tank to allow atmospheric flight, nothing should be able to make it rumble like that.

She ran around a corner into the rec-room and slid to a stop on the slick metal floor. In the middle of the room, a giant octopus sat in a door frame, pulling and pushing at everything around it. Its head was almost as tall as Linda and its giant tentacles were flapping around in desperation. It had one of its tentacles wrapped around a doorframe while the others were poking around. The wildly flapping tentacles knocked over tables and shelves. Linda shrieked as the octopus got hold of a one of the flimsy chairs and threw it in her direction. It narrowly missed her as she ducked down.

Hiding behind an overturned sofa were Dr. Johannson, her assistant Michael and Frank, the engineer. The way Dr. Johannson was yelling at Frank, her face bright red, was a hint at whose fault this situation was.

Linda ducked behind the sofa next to Michael and threw him a look. He just shrugged and pointed towards Frank with his head. No other explanation was necessary.

"I gave you permission for a test-transport of living material," Johannson screamed, pointing at the octopus, "and this is what you do?"

"It _is_ a living..."

"Oh for fucks sake, you knew I meant a fish or maybe some mussels. Not a fucking giant octopus."

Said octopus had gotten hold of one of the ugly table lamps and flung it around. It crashed against the wall behind Michael. He barely managed to duck his head out of the way. "Oi!" he yelled out, "can we put it back now?"

"Why the fuck did you do that?" Johannson hadn't even noticed the interruption.

"Because I can!" Frank yelled back at her. His hand was holding on to the back of the couch so hard that his knuckles turned white. "I like to test things, I needed to know the limits of..."

"Don't fucking bullshit me!" Johannson stood up to scream at Frank more efficiently but one of the tentacles swiped at her and Frank pulled her back down. She peered in disbelief over the couch and it looked like she was more insulted than scared.

In the momentary silence, Michael leaned past Dr. Johannson and grabbed Frank's arm. "It's dying! Put it back in the water!"

That finally got everyone focused. Frank crawled over to the control station and initiated the particle beam. Dr. Johannson ordered the core room team over the comm to reroute energy to the beam. The octopus had gotten quiet, its skin looked pale. Linda was afraid that it was too late for him when the particle beam finally scanned it and transported it back into the sea below them.

The high pitched noise of the particle beam died down and the room was suddenly quiet. The ugly lamp rolled from side to side on the floor, making an eerie sound. The rec-room looked like a bomb had gone off in it and the whole floor was wet.

Dr. Johannson ordered the maintenance crew to come down for repairs and then fixed her angry eyes on Frank. He sighed and nodded and followed her out of the room like a schoolboy who knew that he would get a detention. Linda decided to trail behind them. Not that she had anything to do with Frank's silly idea but she really wanted to hear why he did it.

They stopped at the end of the hallway, where the big window at the aft of the ship gave a stunning view over the sea. The sun was beginning to set and made the sea turn reddish purple. Just as Johannson took a breath to start one of her infamous dressing-downs, Michael came up to them.

"The octopus lives. I followed it with the scanner and it seems to be fine."

"Thank god," Johannson said, "I would have hated adding a dead octopus to the list of damage today." She turned to Frank, raising her hands in a shrug. "What the hell was that about, Frank?"

Frank pouted like a scorned child. "Like I said, I just wanted to test the limits of the system..."

"Bullshit," Linda blurted out to her own surprise. Frank was a responsible engineer, a prank like this was just not like him.

Frank looked at her and then rolled his eyes. "Fine, I tell you why I did it. You know where I found this fella? Hanging on the Eiffel Tower. On the fucking, rusting Eiffel Tower. Because these coordinates, where we are – this used to be France and directly under us is Paris."

Linda looked through the window down to the dark sea. She hadn't even realized where they were. All she could see was miles and miles of water that went on until the rise of the Alps finally separated the North Sea from the Mediterranean Sea.

Frank looked down too and went on, his voice rough and quiet. "The Eiffel Tower, built some 300 years ago as a testament to human ingenuity and technical greatness. Now rusting and falling apart down there under the water. And this stupid octopus is playing on it, wrapping his tentacles around it!"

He looked at them. Nobody said anything. "Imagine the time, how great we were. Back then, humans built a tower of steel just to show that they could, just to prove that anything was possible! And now it falls apart in the water because of our failures. We have forgotten that optimism." He turned back to the window, looking at the water underneath them.

"My daughter was born on-ship, she has never seen the Earth as it used to be. She has never even known this optimism, this feeling that anything is possible. All she knows is our failure, how we made the Earth unlivable for humans."

He turned away from the window as if the view hurt him. "So when I saw that stupid octopus playing on the Eiffel Tower, I got angry. Even if we finally figure out a way of dealing with the water and getting our Earth back, the Eiffel Tower will be long gone by then. My daughter will never see it."

Dr. Johannson sighed, her eyes shining wet. "I still have to make a report about this."

"I understand," Frank said. "It won't happen again."

"Why don't you call your daughter tonight?" Johannson said, her voice sounding unusually warm.

"I don't have any time credits left for this month."

"You can have mine," Johannson said, "I don't need them."

"Thank you, Dr. Johannson, I owe you one."

"You owe me a million, young man," she snarled at him and send him on his way with a wave of her hand. When he had left, she turned to Michael. "Are we still in position?"

"Yes?"

"Put the picture on the comm screens. Show everyone the Eiffel Tower."

"Of course. May I ask why?"

"I've never seen it and so have most people here on board. And maybe..." she looked over her shoulder towards the dark sea, "we can feel that optimism again. God knows we need it."

 


End file.
